“Richard Hyde,” he answered,” she
is on her way to God, and she can rest nothing short
of that.”

CHAPTER XIV

“Hush! Loveishere!”

On the morning that Hyde sailed for America, Cornelia
received the letter he had written her on the discovery
of Rem’s dishonourable conduct. So much
love, so much joy, sent to her in the secret foldings
of a sheet of paper! In a hurry of delight and
expectation she opened it, and her beaming eyes ran
all over the joyful words it brought her—­
sweet fluttering pages, that his breath had moved,
and his face been aware of. How he would have
rejoiced to see her pressing them to her bosom, at
some word of fonder memory or desire.

There was much in this letter which it was necessary
her father and mother should hear—­the Earl’s
message to them—­Hyde’s own proposition
for an immediate marriage, and various necessities
referring to this event. But she was proud and
happy to read words of such noble, straightforward
affection; and the Doctor was especially pleased by
the deference expressed for his wishes. When
he left the house that day he kissed his daughter
with pride and tenderness, and said to Mrs. Moran—­

“Ava, there will be much to get, and much to
do in a short time, but money manages all things Do
not spare where it is necessary.” And then
what important and interesting consultations followed!
what lists of lovely garments became imperative, which
an hour before had not been dreamed of! what discussions
as to mantua makers and milliners! as to guests and
ceremonies! as to all the details of a life unknown,
but invested by love and youth, with a delightfully
overwhelming importance.

Cornelia was so happy that her ordinary dress of grey
camelot did not express her; she felt constrained
to add to it some bows of bright scarlet ribbon, and
then she looked round about her room, and went through
her drawers, to find something else to be a visible
witness to the light heart singing within her.
And she came across some coral combs that Madame Jacobus
had given her, and felt their vivid colouring in the
shining masses of her dark hair, to be one of the right
ways of saying to herself, and all she loved, “See
how happy I am!”

In the afternoon, when the shopping for the day had
been accomplished, she went to Captain Jacobus, to
play with him the game of backgammon which had become
an almost daily duty, and to which the Captain attached
a great importance. Indeed, for many weeks it
had been the event of every day to him; and if he
was no longer dependent on it, he was grateful enough
to acknowledge all the good it had done him. “I
owe your daughter as much as I owe you, sir,”
he would say to Doctor Moran, “and I owe both
of you a bigger debt than I can clear myself of.”